


Together In Paris

by AngieR



Category: Anastasia (1997)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-08
Updated: 2020-12-08
Packaged: 2021-03-10 06:34:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 24
Words: 19,782
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27949883
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AngieR/pseuds/AngieR
Summary: The breaking of the reliquary and death of Rasputin reverse the curse, bringing the rest of the Romanovs back to life. Together, they head for Paris in search of Anastasia.
Kudos: 1





	1. The Kindness Of Strangers

Somewhere deep in the woods of Yekaterinburg, the bodies of a middle-aged man and woman, three young women, and a teenage boy materialized. They were still dressed in the clothing in which they had died ten years previously. The six looked around in amazement and bewilderment.

"Papa, what happened?" asked Alexei.

"I'm not sure, son," Nicholas said. "The last thing I remember, we were all sitting on chairs in the basement of the Ipatiev House. I was holding you in my lap. A man was reading something from a piece of paper but I couldn't understand him. I asked him to repeat himself and then I felt a sudden intense pain in the back of my head. Then...nothing."

The others all nodded.

"Mama, where's Anastasia?" asked Maria.

"Why, I have no idea." Alexandra looked around worriedly, as did Olga and Tatiana.

"Something tells me she's with Grandmama," said Alexei.

"But where is Grandmama? Where are we, for that matter?" asked Tatiana.

"I have the feeling that we're still in Russia, close to the Ipatiev House," said Olga.

"But how did we get here? And where did Grandmama and Anastasia go?" Maria asked again.

"Hey, you know what?" Alexei cried excitedly. "Remember that necklace Grandmama gave Anastasia at the Tricentennial Ball? It said 'Together In Paris,' so I'll bet that's where they are!"

"But how would Grandmama have gotten Anastasia to Paris?" Olga asked skeptically.

"It's something I can't quite explain. It's just a feeling I have deep inside," her younger brother replied.

"I think we should all listen to Alexei. His hunches usually turn out to be spot on," said Maria.

"Not always," grumbled Olga, a bit jealously.

"First of all, we need to find our way out of the woods and back to civilization," Nicholas pointed out.

"But we don't even have a compass," Tatiana said. "The jewels that were sewn into our clothing are gone as well, so we wouldn't get far anyway."

"Well, we're certainly not accomplishing anything just standing here," Olga pointed out.

"Olga's right," said Nicholas. "We are standing beside what appears to be an abandoned mine shaft, therefore we must be near a source of water. If we can find a stream, we'll follow it and see where it leads."

Maria took the ribbon from her hair and tied it around a nearby tree's trunk to mark their starting point, and the family set out. They soon found the stream and began to follow it.

After walking for what seemed like hours and hours, they began to get hungry and went in search of berries and nuts that they knew not to be poisonous. They found just enough to take the edge off their hunger, and after drinking from the stream, they felt much better.

As the day wore on, they began to despair of reaching the edge of the woods before nightfall when they suddenly saw a small cottage and their hearts leaped with joy. Nicholas knocked on the door, and an elderly woman appeared. She looked puzzled when she saw Nicholas, then noticed the rest of the family and became frightened.

"Please don't be afraid," Nicholas told her. "We aren't going to hurt you. My family and I have become lost in the woods, and we need shelter and, if possible, directions back to the city of Yekaterinburg."

"Oh, you poor dears," the woman said. "Please come in and make yourselves comfortable. I am Valya, and my husband's name is Ilya. He has gone out hunting but will return soon. We are poor people, but what we have is yours to share."

"You are so very kind," said Maria. "My family and I thank you very much."

"Think nothing of it," said Valya. "I'm so very glad that you found our cottage before nightfall."

"I am Nicholas, and this is my wife Alexandra, my daughters Olga, Tatiana, and Maria, and my son Alexei," Nicholas told her.

"It's lovely to meet you all," Valya said. About thirty minutes later, Ilya came home carrying a gun and a large sack.

"We have guests," Valya told him. "This is Nicholas and his family. They got lost in the woods and need shelter for the night."

Ilya took one look at Nicholas, and his eyes nearly popped out of his head.


	2. Distressing News

"Excuse me, sir. I'm very sorry. I don't mean to be rude. It's just that you bear a stunning resemblance to our former Tsar Nicholas who was slaughtered along with his family ten years ago," Ilya stammered.

The Romanovs looked at one another in confusion. "What year is this?" Nicholas finally asked.

"Why, it's nineteen twenty-eight," Ilya said with surprise.

The Romanovs looked at one another again. "I'm not sure exactly what happened, but I know that Rasputin must be behind it somehow," Nicholas muttered.

"Rasputin." Ilya spat the name out in disgust. "He was an evil, evil man. He used the royal family to meet his own needs and ultimately caused their downfall. Over the past ten years, our greatest fear has been that he may resurface and wreak more havoc."

"It's just like the story of Sleeping Beauty, Mama," Maria said. "Rasputin must have cast a spell on us that made us fall asleep for ten years and then we woke up in the forest."

"But what would have awakened us?" asked Tatiana.

"I guess something must have happened to break the spell," Olga said. "But what would that have been?"

"I don't think that's exactly what happened, girls," Alexandra told her daughters. "But never mind. The important thing is to find Anastasia and then get back home."

"But I don't think we even have a home anymore, Mama," Alexei said bleakly.

"What's happened to the leadership of the country for the past ten years?" Nicholas wanted to know.

"It's terrible, Your Grace," said Ilya. "The Bolsheviks have assumed control under their leaders Lenin and Stalin. They have placed the entire population of Russia under the oppressive yoke of Communism. All freedoms and human rights are gone, replaced by a cruel dictatorship that monitors their every move and punishes them severely for even the slightest of infractions."

Nicholas wept bitterly. Alexandra did her best to console her husband. "It's not your fault, Nicky," she told him. "You did the best you could. They were just too strong for you, and with Rasputin and his evil magic, we didn't stand a chance."

"But I must do everything I can to free my people from the bondage they are under, Sunny," Nicholas told his wife.

"It isn't your responsibility anymore, darling," Alexandra replied. "You abdicated, remember? The only thing we have to worry about now is keeping our family together, finding Anastasia, and making a new life for ourselves, somehow."

"I do hope we find her really soon," said Alexei. "I miss her so much I can hardly bear it."

"So do I," said Maria.

"We all do," said Tatiana.

"Where is she?" asked Valya.

"My son believes she's in Paris, and he's usually right about such matters," said Nicholas.

"It's very difficult to get outside Russia now," Ilya told them. "You have to have an exit Visa, and to get one, you have to know the right person."

"There used to be this fellow, Dimitri..." Valya began.

"He's been gone for a while now. Nobody knows what happened to him," said Ilya.

"But his partner, Vlad, is still there, I believe." Valya became excited. "I'm sure Vlad can help you!"

"We'll go to him first thing tomorrow," Nicholas said.

Ilya and Valya's cabin was small but snug and warm. The Romanovs were so tired that they all fell asleep almost immediately, huddled together with their arms around each other for security. The next morning Valya fed them all a nutritious and filling breakfast. It was the first true meal they had eaten in ten years. They thanked her profusely and then set out in search of Vlad.


	3. Paris

"Yes, Dimitri did set out for Paris with a young woman who claimed to be the Grand Duchess Anastasia," Vlad told the former royal family. "That was a while ago, and I have no idea whether or not they made it, as I haven't heard anything from them since they left."

"I knew it!" Alexei exclaimed triumphantly.

"We were told that you could provide us with exit visas," Nicholas said to Vlad.

Vlad's eyes narrowed. "It'll cost you."

"Please, sir, my family and I are destitute." Maria batted her eyelashes at Vlad. "We were robbed in the forest and left for dead, and if you could help us, I'd be eternally grateful." Her words weren't exactly untrue.

"Well..." Vlad looked at Maria uncertainly.

"You look like such a kind, compassionate man. I know that you could find it in your heart to help a family in need," Maria continued.

"For your sake, I will do it," Vlad said at last. "Although, of course, I expect to be fully compensated when you reach your destination."

"You have my word," Nicholas told him.

A short time later they were all seated on a train bound for France.

"I don't know what we'd do without you, Maria," Alexei said admiringly to his older sister.

"I could have done just as well," bragged Olga.

"I doubt that," said Tatiana.

"Stop arguing, girls," Alexandra scolded her daughters. "The important thing is that we're finally on our way and we'll see Anastasia again soon."

"I can hardly wait!" cried Alexei. None of them would allow themselves to entertain the thought that Anastasia might not have made it to Paris, after all.

The train rumbled through Poland, past miles and miles of flat farmland where they saw livestock and peasants dressed in colorful cotton clothing.

"It looks just like Russia, Mama," said Maria.

By the time they reached Germany it was nearly dark. The train stopped for a little while so that the passengers could get out and stretch their legs, and then they were once again on their way.

The train traveled through Germany and then entered Switzerland. Everyone gazed in wonder at the majesty of the mountains, and although they all cheered when they crossed the border into France, they did feel a little sad to be leaving them behind.

"We're almost there!" Alexei cried excitedly.

Upon finally reaching the train station in Paris, the family disembarked and looked around.

"Paris is such a huge city," Alexandra said. "Trying to find Anastasia will be like trying to find a needle in a haystack."

"We can't meet her dressed like this, anyway," Tatiana said glumly. They all looked down at their ten-year-old clothing and realized that she was right.

"Yet we've no money to buy new clothes," Olga pointed out. "We don't even know where our next meal's coming from."

"Well, aren't you a little cutie." Maria had stooped to pet a white French poodle.

"Fifi! There you are!" A young girl of about Maria's age appeared. From the way she was dressed, it was obvious that she was quite wealthy. Fifi turned and ran to her owner.

"Thanks for finding Fifi. We've been looking everywhere for her." The girl stared at Maria and her family curiously. "You're not from around here, are you?"

"My family and I came to Paris to escape Communist oppression in Russia," Maria told her, thinking quickly.

"Oh, dear! Bless you, darlings. I'm so glad you were able to get out alive." The girl's mother had appeared beside her, followed closely by the girl's father.

"I'm Nicholas, and this is my wife Alexandra and my children Olga, Tatiana, Maria, and Alexei," Nicholas told the couple and their daughter.

The man and woman exchanged a silent but significant glance. "We are Maurice, Cecile, and Yvonne Marceau," the man told the Romanovs. "If you have nowhere else to go, you're welcome to stay with us for awhile."

"Thank you so much, kind sir," said Alexandra.

"I have a dress that would probably fit you that I never wear any more," Yvonne told Maria. "You may have it if you like it."

"You're so very kind," Maria replied gratefully.

The Romanovs accompanied their new friends back home, wondering what their next adventure would be.


	4. Reunited

"I tell you, it's them," said Cecile. Maria, her ear pressed tightly against the closed door of the bedroom, gasped inaudibly.

"But that's not possible," Maurice told his wife. "You know as well as I do that the Bolsheviks murdered them ten years ago."

"I don't understand it, but they've come back somehow," Cecile insisted. "We must do everything possible to help them."

"I don't know who they really are, but I do agree that they need help," her husband replied.

Feeling slightly guilty for eavesdropping, Maria silently crept back to her spot beside Alexei on the floor. Already they had been found out.

"Why did you chose Paris to escape to when you fled Russia?" Cecile asked Nicholas and Alexandra over the breakfast table the following morning.

"We suspect that our youngest daughter Anastasia is here with her grandmother," Nicholas told her. Cecile gave her husband a look that said, I told you so.

"Do you mean the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna?" asked Maurice.

"Why, yes, I do!" Nicholas told him.

"We know where she lives. We'll take you to her," Maurice offered.

Scene Break

"It's so good to be home," Anastasia said as Dimitri carried her over the threshold of their new home.

"It certainly is." Her new husband sat her down on her feet and kissed her lips.

"Did you have a nice honeymoon?" asked the Dowager Empress.

"Oh, Grandmama, it was wonderful!" Anastasia went to her grandmother and hugged and kissed her. "I've never before in my life danced like I danced on the deck of the Tasha."

"She completely wore me out," Dimitri chuckled.

"I remember when I came to Russia to marry your Grandpapa all those years ago." The Dowager Empress had a far-away look in her eyes. "I had to get used to a new country, a new language, a new religion, a new everything. It was difficult at first, but your Grandpapa was very patient, and I eventually got used to it all."

Anastasia was busy sharing her honeymoon memories with her grandmother when she heard a knock on the door. Her heart leaped with joy when she saw who her visitors were.

"Papa!" she cried, flying into her father's arms.

"Shvibzik!" Nicholas exclaimed, holding her as if he would never let her go.

"I missed you so much!" Tears of joy streamed down Anastasia's face as she clung to her father. "I thought that you had all been killed!"

"I don't know exactly what happened," Nicholas said. "I remember being in the basement of the Ipatiev House, and the next thing I knew, we were standing in the forest and it was ten years later."

"How did you ever find me?" asked Anastasia.

"Alexei remembered that your grandmother had given you the necklace that said 'Together in Paris', so we thought that perhaps you had gone there to find her."

"But how did you ever get out of Russia? You have to have an exit visa now, you know."

"We met a very kind couple who lived in the woods. They told us about Vlad. Vlad provided us with the documents we needed to get out of the country and train fare, and I promised to pay him back as soon as I could."

"I'll take the money to him," Dimitri offered. "I owe him a visit anyway. He probably wonders what in the world happened to me."

"Do I know you?" asked Nicholas. "You look awfully familiar."

"Papa and Mama, this is my new husband, Dimitri," Anastasia said proudly. "He was the kitchen boy in the palace who helped me and Grandmama escape the night the Bolsheviks came."

Nicholas gaped with disbelief. "You married the kitchen boy?"

"If not for him, I never would have found Grandmama," Anastasia told him. "He saved my life when Rasputin tried to kill me."

"I knew that Rasputin was behind all this." Nicholas' eyes blazed with fury.

"It's all right now, Papa," Anastasia quickly assured him. "He's dead now. I killed him and broke his reliquary."

"That's it!" Dimitri exclaimed. "The breaking of the reliquary must have reversed the curse and brought you back to life."

"I'm so glad to see you again, my darling." Alexandra wrapped her arms around her youngest daughter and held her tight.

"Oh, Mama!" In her mother's arms, Anastasia wept unashamedly.

"How did you ever survive, sweetheart? You were so little when...it all happened. Who took care of you?" asked Alexandra.

"I fell and hit my head and developed amnesia," Anastasia explained. "Someone found me and put me in an orphanage. For ten years I couldn't remember who I was, and then I found Dimitri and he helped me remember."

"I do hope that you were treated well at the orphanage," Alexandra said.

"I wasn't beaten, but I was never shown much love either," Anastasia said sadly.

"Nastya!" Alexei was eager to hug his sister.

"I think I missed you most of all," Anastasia said as she embraced him. "I thought I'd never see you again. I thought I'd never see any of you again."

After exchanging hugs all around, the family gathered in the den to talk. They had a lot to catch up on.


	5. Just A Feeling

"Please be very careful, Mitya," Anastasia begged her husband, who was about to set out to repay Vlad for her family's train trip to Paris.

"Of course I will be, Anya." Dimitri grinned. "Don't worry about me."

They hugged and kissed, and then Dimitri set out on the long journey.

"I do hope he'll be all right." Anastasia looked very worried.

"Of course he will! Why shouldn't he be?" Maria gave her younger sister a reassuring hug.

Anastasia shrugged. "I don't know. It's just a feeling I have." She grinned. "I just worry too much sometimes, I suppose."

"Everything's going to be all right," Maria assured her.

Scene Break

The trip itself was pleasant and rather uneventful. Dimitri sat in a seat by the window and enjoyed the scenery, especially the Alps as the train passed through Switzerland. An attractive young woman smiled at him and started to ask if the seat beside him was free, then noticed his wedding ring and quickly moved on.

The train reached the station in St. Petersburg, and Dimitri got off and headed for where he knew he'd find his old friend and business partner. He was only a few steps away when he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his head, then nothing at all.

Scene Break

"How did you find me once you got to Paris?" Anastasia asked her family.

"We met a very kind family called the Marceaus," her father told her. "They took us in, fed us, and gave us nice clothes to wear. Maurice knew where your grandmother lived and showed us the way."

"They have a daughter named Yvonne who's my age and a French poodle named Fifi," Maria added.

"I must go to them and thank them for caring for you and leading you to us," said Anastasia.

The family went together to visit the Marceaus. Cecile opened the door and gasped in disbelief when she saw Anastasia.

"I came to thank you for feeding and clothing my family and leading them to me and my grandmother," Anastasia said with a smile.

"That's quite all right," Cecile replied. "We were happy to help."

"If there's any way I can repay you, please let me know," Anastasia told her.

"Oh, we don't expect to be repaid," Cecile said generously. Just then Fifi ran to the door barking excitedly, followed closely by Yvonne.

Fifi and Pooka sniffed one another curiously, then both wagged their tails.

"Aren't you cute," said Anastasia, patting Fifi on the head.

"It looks like Pooka's made a new friend," the Dowager Empress said with a smile.

"It certainly does," Anastasia agreed.

"Why don't you all come on in," said Cecile.

"It's great to see you again," Yvonne told Maria.

"It's great to see you again as well," Maria replied.

Maurice soon joined his wife and daughter. He looked just as startled as Cecile had at the sight of the former Tsar and Tsarina.

"I can't believe I'm actually in the presence of royalty," he stammered.

"Former royalty." Nicholas smiled modestly and shook his hand. "I suppose now we'll all have to learn to live like ordinary folk do."

"I don't have the slightest idea what it would be like to be ordinary," said Alexandra.

"Neither do I," said her husband. "I suppose we'll have to learn fast."

The Romanovs had a nice leisurely visit with the Marceaus that lasted several hours, and they promised to stay in touch when they left.

"I'll bring Pooka for a play date with Fifi sometime," Anastasia promised Yvonne.

"Great! She'd love that," Yvonne replied.

Anastasia and her grandmother took the rest of the Romanovs out to lunch, then to see some of the major attractions in Paris such as the Eiffel Tower and museums. Then they all went back home to relax and visit some more.

Scene Break

Vlad was going about his usual business when he suddenly heard a commotion outside. Frightened, he flung the door open and looked around. What he found filled him with shock and dismay.


	6. Finding Dimitri

Vlad recognized Dimitri's unconscious form right away. The younger man was bleeding heavily from a deep gash in his head.

"Dimitri?" Vlad asked gently. There was no response.

"Dimitri!" Vlad called loudly. Still no response. Vlad lifted Dimitri's limp wrist and was able to detect a weak pulse. Gently he gathered his friend into his arms, put him in the back of his car, and drove him to the nearest hospital.

"He has a slight concussion, but I don't detect any serious brain damage," the doctor told Vlad.

"Thank God," said Vlad.

Dimitri regained consciousness a few hours later. Vlad was sitting beside his bed.

"What happened?" asked Dimitri.

"You received quite a nasty bump on your head, but you're going to be all right now," Vlad told him.

"Where am I?"

"You're in the hospital in St. Petersburg. I heard a noise outside and went to see what it was and found you lying unconscious by the side of the road. You were mugged, Dimitri. I didn't see who did it. They had already run away by the time I got there."

"Oh, no," Dimitri groaned.

"Why did you come back?" Vlad asked. "I thought that you and Anastasia had reached safety in Paris."

"Paris? Anastasia?" Dimitri was obviously very confused. "What on earth are you talking about?"

Scene Break

"Dimitri's been gone for several days now, and I haven't heard a word from him," Anastasia said. "I'm afraid something dreadful might have happened to him."

"But what could have happened?" asked Maria.

"I must go to him," Anastasia decided out loud. "I simply can't rest until I know for sure that he's all right."

"All the way back to Russia?" Maria's eyes grew round. "Oh, Nastya, that sounds so scary!"

"I'll go with you," Alexei said loyally.

"I'm going as well," said Maria.

The three of them, with Pooka of course, caught the next train out of Paris.

To Anastasia, it seemed that the train just couldn't go fast enough. All the things that could possibly have happened to Dimitri kept running through her mind. "Dear God, please watch over my husband and keep him safe," she prayed.

They reached Vlad's usual hide-out to find it deserted. Anastasia's worry turned to panic. "Now I know something's happened to him!" she cried.

"Perhaps they just stepped out for a bit," said Maria, patting her sister's arm consolingly.

"I think Maria's right, but perhaps we should check at the hospital anyway, just to be sure," Alexei suggested. He had a grimly ominous feeling about his brother-in-law but didn't want to make Anastasia any more upset than she already was.

The three of them (dogs weren't allowed inside hospitals, so Pooka had to stay behind) did so, and sure enough, they discovered that Dimitri had been admitted as a patient. They found the room he was in, where they found Vlad sitting beside his bed and Dimitri awake and sitting up with a large bandage on his head.

"Dimitri!" Anastasia cried, running to her husband and embracing him.

"Who are you?" Dimitri asked her.

Anastasia stared at him, confused and devastated.

"He has amnesia," Vlad explained sadly. "He doesn't remember anything at all."

"Oh, no!" Anastasia gasped.

In the meantime, Vlad stared at Maria and Alexei, whom he didn't recognize.

"This is my sister Maria and my brother Alexei," Anastasia told him. "And this is Vlad, Dimitri's former business partner."

Maria and Alexei nodded hello.

"What shall we do?" Anastasia asked bleakly.

"We've done everything we can do for him physically," the doctor told her. "My advice to you is to take him home and shower him with love. That's the best treatment for him right now. Hopefully with time, his memory will return."

"Come on, Dimitri," Anastasia said. Tears of sorrow flowed down her cheeks. "It's time to go home. I love you, my darling."

Dimitri merely stared at her and blinked in confusion. The expression on his face just broke her heart.


	7. Pavel

In London, a refugee from Soviet Russia named Pavel Voronov picked up his morning newspaper and browsed the headlines. What he found surprised him so much that he almost dropped his coffee cup. Could it really be that she'd actually been found alive? But how was that possible? Pavel remembered reading of her death, along with those of her family, with tears in his eyes. How was it possible that she was alive once more?

Of one thing he was absolutely certain, and that was that he must travel to Paris to see for himself as soon as possible. Too excited to finish eating breakfast, Pavel prepared to leave for France right away.

Scene Break

"Home?" asked Dimitri. "But I don't understand. Where's home?"

"We live in Paris now, Dimitri," said Anastasia. "Russia was taken over by the Bolsheviks. They forced my father to abdicate and set up their own Communist government. You helped me get to Paris and find my grandmother. Don't you remember anything at all?"

Dimitri shook his head. "No, I'm sorry. I don't."

"Rasputin followed us there. He wanted to kill me and fulfill the curse he'd cast on our family. You saved my life, Dimitri. He tried to make me drown myself but you saved me. Then after I finally found my grandmother, he tried to kill me again, but you saved me again. We killed him and broke his reliquary, Dimitri. Then we got married and honeymooned on the Tasha. Then my family came back to life and found us."

Dimitri just shook his head. "You're very beautiful, but I'm afraid I don't remember any of the things you've told me. So I'm actually married to you? I'm your husband, and you're my wife?"

"Yes, Dimitri." Tears flowed copiously down Anastasia's face. "I love you."

"I'm so sorry," Dimitri said. "I do wish very badly that I could remember."

Scene Break

Olga and Tatiana were talking to their grandmother, catching up on the past ten years, when they heard a knock on the door. Olga answered it and couldn't believe her eyes when she saw Pavel standing there, holding a huge bouquet of flowers.

"Pasha!" she cried. "Is is really you?"

"Olga!" Pavel exclaimed. "So the story was true! You really are alive again!"

He handed Olga the flowers, and Tatiana hurried to find a vase for them. As soon as her arms were free, Olga turned to Pavel, who embraced her in a big bear hug.

"I thought that I would never see you again," Pavel mumbled into Olga's hair.

"How's your wife?" Olga asked Pavel when they finally separated.

"I lost her in the influenza epidemic ten years ago," Pavel told her.

"I'm so sorry," Olga said.

"I don't understand, Olga," said Pavel. "How'd you do it? How'd you come back?"

"I truly don't understand it," Olga replied. "I'm just ever so thankful for another chance to live out my life and do all the things I want to do. I'll never take that for granted again."

"I really loved you, you know," Pavel said softly.

"I really loved you too, Pasha," said Olga. "It broke my heart that we couldn't be together."

"I never forgot you, Olga." Pavel's voice was soft, and tears were in his eyes as he reached for her hand. "My Valentina was a wonderful woman, and I loved her dearly, but I never forgot you."

"Thank you for coming to see me, and for bringing the flowers," Olga said with a smile. "It almost seems like old times again, doesn't it?"

"Yes, it does." Pavel leaned closer to Olga and gazed into her eyes. "Olga, my darling, the feelings you once had for me, are they still there?"

Olga nodded. "They never went away, Pasha. I truly did wish happiness for you and Valentina, but I never ceased to secretly wish that I was in her place."

Pavel looked positively jubilant. "Olga, my love, now that...well, now that things aren't as they were before...do you think there's a chance that your father would grant his approval for us to wed?"

"Oh, Pasha." Tears of joy streamed down Olga's face. Never in a million years would she have guessed that she would soon be sitting beside Pavel, hearing him ask her that question. "I shall ask him as soon as I can, but I don't see any reason why he wouldn't agree now."

Scene Break

"This is where we live now, Dimitri," Anastasia said as she, Maria, and Alexei led her husband up the steps of their home. The Dowager Empress heard them coming and rushed to the door.

"Dimitri, dear, you're all right!" she cried with relief at the sight of her grandson-in-law.

"He has amnesia, Grandmama," Anastasia said mournfully. "He doesn't remember anything at all."

"Oh, no!" the Dowager Empress moaned.


	8. Recapturing Lost Love

A/N: For those of you who may be wondering, Alexei was healed of his hemophilia when he and his family came back to life.

"This is our bedroom," Anastasia told Dimitri as she led him into the opulent room that night.

"It's certainly very lovely," Dimitri said. "And you look absolutely ravishing in that gown."

"Dimitri..." Anastasia sat on the side of the bed and took both her husband's hands into her own. "We don't have to...you know...tonight, if you don't feel like you're ready to."

"But I do want to, Anya, more than anything else in the world."

She pulled him down onto the bed with her, and they began to kiss fervently. Within moments they had both temporarily forgotten about Dimitri's amnesia.

Scene Break

Pavel and Olga were wed in the nicest church in Paris. It wasn't Russian Orthodox, but they didn't even mind that. Afterwards, Pavel took Olga on a honeymoon cruise down the Nile.

"I've always wanted to see the pyramids," he told her.

"Being on this cruise ship reminds me so much of being on the Standart," Olga said. "I keep expecting to run into my parents and siblings."

"We'll see them again soon enough," Pavel replied. "Isn't the sun shining on the water simply beautiful?" He linked arms with his bride, and they stood looking out over the river.

"I just can't get over how much of a miracle it is to be standing here with you," Pavel added softly.

"An advantage to losing my title of Grand Duchess that I never even considered before was that now I could marry whomever I pleased," Olga said with a smile.

"You'll always be a princess to me," Pavel said tenderly.

That night Olga watched him shyly as he entered their cabin.

"I don't really know how it is between a man and a woman," she told him. "I died a virgin. You'll have to show me how to please you."

"Nothing in the world would give me more pleasure," said Pavel. He came to her and began to kiss her. She felt herself relax as he caressed her, and soon she didn't feel afraid at all anymore.

Scene Break

While Olga and Pavel were honeymooning on the Nile, Dimitri was readjusting to life in Paris. With Anastasia's help, his memory began to return bit by bit. The two sat together for hours looking at old photos and keepsakes.

"Remember this, Dimitri?" Anastasia asked, over and over.

"Oh yes, I remember that!" Dimitri cried excitedly ever so often.

They also went for long walks around Paris together, with Anastasia pointing out various landmarks. For Dimitri, it was just like seeing the city for the first time.

Scene Break

Another Russian refugee, Dimitri Malama, also journeyed to Paris when he learned that the Romanovs were alive once again. Like Pavel Voronov before him, he had hopes of recapturing lost love.

Tatiana was home when he rang the bell and couldn't believe her eyes when she saw who her caller was.

"Mitya!" she cried, throwing her arms around his neck.

"Tanya!" he exclaimed, hugging her back. "How did you come back?"

"I don't know. I remember lying on the floor of the basement of the Ipatiev House in tremendous pain, and then the next thing I knew, the pain was gone and I was standing in the forest with the rest of my family."

"Do you still remember everything that happened before?"

"Very vaguely, but yes."

"Do you remember Ortino?"

"Ortino." Tears filled Tatiana's eyes.

"Never mind. I'll get you another dog," said Dimitri.

"So you survived the Revolution, then."

"Just barely," Dimitri told her. "I was severely wounded fighting the Reds in the Ukraine in August of 1919. For days they didn't know whether I'd live or die."

"Are you all right now?"

"I'm fine, except for some pretty nasty scars." Dimitri grinned.

"And you never married over all this time?"

"I never met a woman who could hold a candle to you, Tanya," Dimitri said softly.

"Well, I'm ever so glad to see you again," Tatiana said brightly. "Would you like to go for a walk? I could show you Paris - well, as much as you could see in a day, anyway."

"I'd love to!" Dimitri beamed.

"It's so wonderful to see our children finding love," Alexandra said to her husband as they watched Tatiana leave with Dimitri.

"It certainly is," Nicholas agreed. "I knew how Olga felt about Pavel, and it hurt me that they couldn't be together, yet I knew that I had to uphold the tradition of Grand Duchesses not marrying below their station. The same was true for Tatiana and Dimitri Malama. As for Anastasia, a kitchen boy would have been just about my last choice for her, but after seeing what a fine lad he truly is and how happy they are together, I can't imagine a more perfect match."


	9. Making Up For Lost Time

Upon returning from their honeymoon on the Nile, Pavel and Olga moved into a beautiful new home in Paris near that of Dimitri and Anastasia. Having never been away from them in her life, Olga wanted to live near her parents, and Pavel was happy to make the move from London.

"When I think about you lying forgotten in an abandoned mine shaft deep in the woods of Siberia for ten years, all I want to do is to make you as happy as I can," Pavel said tenderly.

"When I'm with you, all the pain and loss doesn't even seem to matter at all," Olga replied.

Pavel picked her up and carried her over the threshold, and once they were inside, she began to kiss him deeply, passionately.

"We're barely inside the door," he laughed.

"I don't care," Olga said huskily. "We have a lot of lost time to make up for."

"No truer words were ever spoken," Pavel replied as he picked her up and carried her to their bed.

Scene Break

"This has been the most enjoyable outing I've had in a long time," Dimitri Malama told Tatiana as he walked her home.

"I've never done anything like this before, ever," Tatiana replied. "If I ever went anywhere before, it was always with either family members or attendants."

"Well, there's a first time for everything, isn't there?" Dimitri asked with a pleasant grin.

"Mitya...did you truly never fall in love again during the ten years I was...gone? Please, I want to know the truth."

"I had several girlfriends," Dimitri admitted. "None of them ever lasted any longer than a few months at the most. I guess I just never got over you, Tanya."

It was on the tip of Tatiana's tongue to ask him another question, but her nerve failed her, and in the end she decided that perhaps it wasn't really so important, after all.

"Let's look in here," Dimitri suggested when they reached the door of a pet store.

Inside the pet store they found a French bulldog puppy that looked just like Ortino. Tatiana fell in love with him as soon as she saw him. Dimitri saw the look in her eyes and knew that she simply had to have that puppy, so he paid the pet shop owner for him.

"Come on, let's take him home," he told Tatiana. "He's yours."

"Oh, Mitya, thank you!" she cried joyfully as she kissed his cheek.

"Now that I've given you something, you must give me something in return," Dimitri said with twinkling eyes.

"But what?" Tatiana was puzzled.

"Your hand in marriage."

Scene Break

Dimitri and Tatiana were married in the same church that Pavel and Olga had been married in. For their honeymoon, they went to Italy and stayed in a motel overlooking the Arno river. They left little Ortino with Tatiana's parents. At first Pooka was jealous of the puppy, but in time she got used to him and the two dogs became good friends.

"Come to bed, sweetheart," Dimitri softly urged his bride on their wedding night.

"I will in just a minute," Tatiana told him. "The moonlight on the water is just so beautiful. Once you've been dead and then are alive again, you appreciate the beauty of the world much more."

Dimitri waited a few more minutes, then quietly got out of bed and went and stood beside her, softly stroking her hair.

"You're right," he said softly. "It is very beautiful."

She turned to kiss his lips, and soon they were both kissing very passionately. She barely noticed it when he picked her up and carried her to the bed.

Scene Break

"Why do you look so sad, darling?" Alexandra asked Maria.

"Believe me, Mama, I truly am happy for all three of my sisters," Maria said with a sigh. "It's just that I feel so lonely. I wish I had a man who loved me, too."

"I'm sure it'll happen some day, sweetheart," her mother assured her. "Just give it time. Why don't you take the dogs out for a walk? That will give you something to take your mind off it."

Maria collected Pooka and Ortino and took them outside. She decided to visit her friend Yvonne Marceau, whom she hadn't seen in awhile. As she neared Yvonne's house, she saw that Yvonne was sitting on her front porch with a handsome, swarthy, dark-haired man. He had a mustache and was wearing a beret. They both saw Maria coming and waved to her. Fifi saw Pooka and Ortino and ran to meet them.

"If this is a bad time, I could come again later," Maria said apologetically.

"Oh, no, that's fine!" Yvonne quickly assured her. "This is my cousin, Jules. He's visiting from the other side of town. Jules, this is Maria Romanova."

"Bon jour, Mademoiselle," Jules said, kissing Maria's hand. As she looked into his eyes, she felt as if she might swoon.


	10. Jules

"Hello," Maria said politely.

"You look familiar," Jules said thoughtfully. "I know I've never met you before, but I feel sure I've seen a photograph with you in it at some point."

Maria was at a loss for words. She felt sure that Jules wouldn't believe her if she told him who she really was.

"Never mind. It'll come to me eventually," Jules said pleasantly. "'Romanova.' That's Russian, right?"

"Right." Maria smiled. "My family and I are refugees."

"You speak French very fluently."

"Thank you. I studied it for many years."

"You must have had a particular interest in my country, then."

Maria had actually hated having to learn French, at the time never realizing, of course, how vital it would be to her one day.

"I love learning about other countries," she told Jules. "How many languages do you know?"

Jules laughed. "Only French. I'm not really much of a student. So, tell me about your family."

"Well, there's me, my parents, three sisters, and a brother. All my sisters are married except for me. Oh, and also my grandmother, of course."

"Three sisters and a brother." Jules looked thoughtful again. "You were on some type of ship, weren't you? In the photograph, I mean. Yes. And there wee also several dogs with you."

The Standart. Ortino, Jimmy, and Joy. But of course she couldn't tell him that. He'd never believe her.

"I don't remember," she said vaguely.

"You were all very well dressed. Your brother was wearing a sailor suit. Your family must be quite well off, I take it." Immediately he looked penitent. "I'm so sorry. It was wrong of me to say that. Your family's financial status is none of my business, of course."

"It's quite all right." Maria sighed with relief that the conversation had taken a different turn.

"You see, it's sometimes awkward for me to know exactly what to say when I'm in the presence of a beautiful woman," Jules explained.

Maria blushed furiously.

The rest of the visit went well. Jules told Maria a little about his own family, and they discussed other topics of interest to them both. The visit ended with Jules inviting Maria to go roller skating with him. The photo of Maria and her family on the Standart was never mentioned again.

Scene Break

The memory of the photo haunted Jules, however, and he knew that he couldn't rest until he remembered exactly where he'd seen it. He visited the largest library in Paris and spent hours perusing old newspaper and encyclopedia articles. When he finally found what he was looking for, he read the accompanying article over and over again, simply unable to make himself believe it.

Scene Break

Jules arrived at the roller skating rink at the appointed time to meet Maria. When he saw her coming, he smiled and waved, and she smiled and waved back.

"I'm so glad you could make it," he told her. "But Maria...why didn't you tell me?"

She frowned. "Why didn't I tell you what?"

"The truth about your family."

She gasped with surprise. "How'd you find out?"

"At the library. There were a lot of articles about the Revolution, about the..." His voice trailed off, and he couldn't say anything more.

"I was afraid you wouldn't believe me and would think I was crazy," Maria said in a small voice.

"But...how did you do it? How did you come back?"

"My sister Anastasia killed Rasputin and broke his reliquary, and that reversed the curse and brought me and my family back to life."

"Rasputin? What reliquary? Please tell me all about it!"

Maria told him everything she knew about Anastasia's confrontation with Rasputin. Jules was absolutely fascinated. He found himself beginning to fall in love with the innocent beauty who'd been given a second chance at life.


	11. Remeniscing

"His name is Jules," Maria told her parents. "He's Yvonne's cousin. I invited him over for dinner. I hope that's all right."

"Of course it's all right," Nicholas told his daughter. "It's just that it would have been nice if you'd told us first. We'd like to know a bit about him."

"Well, he's very nice," Maria said. "His family is in the wine business."

"I remember how badly you wanted to marry a soldier," Alexandra reminisced.

"Well, soldiers tend to be a bit scarce during peace time," Maria pointed out. "I'll just have to settle for whatever I can get. I do still want to have twenty children, however."

Jules arrived dressed very nicely and carrying a rose for Maria.

"Why, thank you!" said Maria. "Jules, I'd like for you to meet my family. "This is my father, my mother, my grandmother, my sister Olga and her husband Pavel, my sister Tatiana and her husband Dimitri, my sister Anastasia and her husband, also named Dimitri, and my brother, Alexei." The married sisters and their husbands were also visiting at the same time.

"You have such a large family," Jules commented. "In my family, there's only my sister and myself, besides my parents, of course. Did you fight a lot when you were younger?"

"Most of the time we got along quite well," Maria told him. "Nastya used to play a lot of naughty pranks, but it was all in fun. Tanya could be bossy sometimes too. We used to call her 'the governess'. The good thing about it was that if we ever wanted anything from our parents, all we usually had to do was ask Tanya, and she could get them to give it to us."

"I used to hate it when Tanya picked out my clothes for me in the morning, when I was quite capable of choosing them myself," said Anastasia.

"Well, I did have to make sure you dressed appropriately every day," Tatiana replied. They both laughed.

"Tanya even bossed me around sometimes, and I'm the oldest," Olga said.

"I remember how much you used to hate that," said Maria.

"What was it like to have four older sisters?" Jules asked Alexei.

"I enjoyed it very much," Alexei told him. "My sisters doted on me all the time. Sometimes they used to quarrel amongst themselves for the privilege of taking care of me. If not for the hemophilia, I'd say I had quite a happy childhood."

"Hemophilia?"

"I don't have it anymore, but I did when I was younger. I used to bleed so much that I was too weak to get out of bed for days sometimes. Once we were vacationing at our hunting lodge when I fell down in the bathtub and hurt myself really bad. Mama was so scared. She wrote to Father Grigori and he wrote back and told her that I would live."

"Father Grigori?"

"Rasputin." Anastasia grimaced. "At first we all thought that he was wonderful because he could stop Alexei's bleeding when no one else could, but Papa found out that he planned to seize the Russian throne and had him banished. He cast a curse on us in revenge."

"How horrible!" Jules gasped.

"It's all right now," Anastasia said. "I destroyed his reliquary, and that killed him and brought my family back to life."

"Thank goodness for that!" Jules exclaimed, gazing at Maria.

"I couldn't have done it without Dimitri," Anastasia said loyally, as her husband grinned and hugged her. "Alexei and I were always very close," she continued. "We were the two youngest, and we always did everything together. After I finally remembered who I really was, I missed my whole family terribly, but I missed Alexei most of all." She and Alexei exchanged loving glances.

"That's great that you don't have hemophilia anymore," Jules said to Alexei.

"It really is," Alexei agreed. "Now I can do all the things normal boys do, like riding a bike or going roller skating."

Later Jules and Maria went for a walk on their own.

"You have an amazing family," Jules told Maria. 'I'm so glad I met them."

"Thank you," said Maria.

"You're very lovely as well," Jules said. "Maria...may I kiss you?"

"I think I'd like that," Maria said. Gently, Jules took her chin into both his hands, lifted her face, and placed a soft kiss on her lips. For Maria, it was like magic.

Scene Break

While Jules and Maria enjoyed a leisurely stroll, Pavel and Olga chatted comfortably as they returned home.

"I'm so happy for Maria," Olga told her husband. "If anyone deserves to be happy, it's her. She was always the nicest one of all of us. She's never been unkind to anyone."

"I remember how she used to flirt with the officers on the Standart." Pavel grinned.

"Of the four of us girls, she was always the most eager to marry and have a family." Olga smiled mysteriously at her husband. "Speaking of which, I have a surprise for you that I know you're going to like."


	12. Blessings Come In Threes

"I'm pregnant!" Olga exclaimed.

"Darling! Are you sure?" asked Pavel.

"I'm certain, Pasha," said Olga. "I went to see Dr. Fournier today, and he told me I'm about a month along."

"Why, that's wonderful!" Pavel exclaimed.

"Also a great relief, as I'd wondered whether or not I'd still be able to bear children because of...well, because of what happened to me ten years ago."

"I'm so glad to know that your worries were unfounded," Pavel told her. "Although I'd still love you just the same even if that weren't the case."

Scene Break

Olga couldn't wait to tell her sisters the news. She called Tatiana the very next morning.

"Olga, you're not going to believe this, but I'm pregnant too!" said Tatiana.

"No! You're kidding!"

"I'm serious, Olga," Tatiana told her. "I just found out yesterday and was waiting for just the right time to tell you, but as it turned out, you beat me to it."

"What does Mitya have to say about it?" asked Olga.

"He's thrilled, of course! How about Pasha?"

"He's very happy as well. Did you go to Dr. Fournier?"

"Yes."

"I went to him too! He's going to have his hands full with both of us pregnant at the same time, isn't he!"

Both sisters giggled.

Scene Break

"Are you all right, Anya? You look a little pale," said Dimitri as he buttered a piece of toast. Anastasia had just stumbled into the kitchen, bleary-eyed.

"I'm fine," she said.

"You can't fool me, Anya." Dimitri put his hands on his wife's shoulders and looked into her eyes with a knowing smile.

"Well, all right," Anastasia said reluctantly, plopping down into a chair. "I think I'm pregnant, but I didn't want to say anything yet in case I was wrong."

"I knew it!" Dimitri grinned. "I hope you're planning to go to a doctor soon."

"I'll call Tanya and ask who she thinks I should see," said Anastasia.

"Do you always do whatever Tanya says?" asked Dimitri.

"Not always." Anastasia grinned.

Scene Break

"Don't misunderstand me," Maria said to Jules as they strolled beside the Seine several months later. "I'm really happy for my sisters and thrilled that I'm going to be an aunt, but I can't help feeling a little bit left out."

"Oh, but you have plenty of time, cherie," Jules replied. "After all, your sisters all had head starts in that Anastasia survived the massacre of your family and Olga and Tatiana already had sweethearts when that happened. Your time will come, ma belle Marie. You just have to be patient."

"But I'm not even married yet!" said Maria.

"That may change very soon." Jules smiled mysteriously.

Maria gaped, startled. "What do you mean?"

"I was waiting for just the right time to ask you this, and right now seems perfect," Jules said, dropping to one knee.

Scene Break

"Have you been all right, Sunny?" Nicholas asked his wife as he and Alexei entered the parlor after a morning of playing polo. Alexandra sat in a chair knitting blankets for her expected grandchildren.

"I've been very well, Nicky," she said. "Returning to life seems to have done wonders for my health. I never need a wheelchair or even a cane anymore."

"That's wonderful, darling." Nicholas bent to kiss her cheek. "I suppose the loss of our kingdom wasn't all bad after all, was it?"

"After the pressures of having to deal with the war and you being away at the Front and Alexei being ill and Rasputin's betrayal, our life today seems like heaven by comparison," Alexandra replied.

"And now three of our daughters are pregnant, and the fourth is engaged," Nicholas added. "I wonder how many other surprises are in store for us?"

They both looked at Alexei, who gaped. "But I'm only fifteen!" he exclaimed.


	13. Wedding Surprise

The next few months were busy but happy ones for the family. Olga, Tatiana, and Anastasia enjoyed comparing pregnancy symptoms and preparing for their babies' births together. For Alexandra, it brought back memories of her own five pregnancies, and she regaled her daughters with stories of events that had happened during those special times.

"You must have been so disappointed that I was a girl," Olga said. "I know how badly Papa wanted a son to inherit his kingdom."

"Your father was actually very nice about it," her mother told her. "He said that he was happy you were a girl, since a son would have belonged to Russia, but a daughter would belong to us."

"That was so sweet of him!" said Olga, who'd always been especially close to her father.

"I'll bet he didn't say it again after I was born," Tatiana commented wryly.

"You know how much we've always loved each and every one of you," Alexandra said softly, giving her a warm hug. She'd always felt especially close to her second daughter.

"I know that Papa actually cried after I was born," Anastasia put in.

"Yet now he wouldn't trade you for anything in the world," her mother assured her.

While her three sisters were preparing for motherhood, Maria was busy planning her wedding. Jules' family were Catholics, while Maria, of course, was Russian Orthodox, but Jules' parents never pressured her to convert. A question arose about bridesmaids. Maria, of course, wanted all three of her sisters to be bridesmaids, while Jules wanted his own sister, Giselle, to be included. In the end, they decided to let all four young women be bridesmaids. Alexei and three of Jules' friends were chosen as groomsmen. A couple of Jules' young cousins were chosen to be the ring bearer and the flower girl.

One day when Olga was not quite nine months pregnant, she and Pavel were taking a walk around their neighborhood when Olga suddenly stopped walking and winced in pain.

"Get me to a hospital," she told Pavel. "The baby's about to come, now!"

Pavel lost no time in rushing her back home and into the car, then driving to the hospital. Once there, he helped Olga out of the car and into the building. A doctor took one look at her and brought a wheelchair. She was wheeled into the labor and delivery department, and Pavel was left to pace endlessly in the waiting room for what seemed like hours.

At last he grew tired and lay down on the sofa for what he planned to be a short nap. He was soon deeply asleep and didn't awaken until he felt a nurse shaking him awake.

"Monsieur Voronov, wake up!" she called urgently. "You have a son!"

"What?" Pavel was instantly wide awake. "You mean the baby's already here? Is Olga all right?"

"Your wife and son are both fine," the nurse said with a smile. "You can go in and see them whenever you want."

Pavel practically ran into the room, where he saw Olga sitting in bed looking very tired but happy and holding a tiny bundle.

"Meet your new son, Pasha," she said with a weary smile.

Pavel carefully took the baby into his arms, folded the blanket back, and gazed into his new son's tiny face. The baby grimaced and flailed a tiny fist.

"He's beautiful!" Pavel exclaimed.

"I want to name him Nicholas, for my father," said Olga.

"That's fine with me," Pavel replied.

Olga and baby Nicholas had been in the hospital for two days when Tatiana was admitted in labor herself, and it was Dimitri's turn to pace the waiting room floor. Tatiana also gave birth to a son, whom she and Dimitri named Alexander.

"It looks as if boys may be just as plentiful in the second generation as girls were in the first," Alexandra commented to her husband as they were in the hospital visiting their new grandsons.

"We still have one more to go yet," Nicholas reminded her.

Scene Break

"You've never been more beautiful to me than when you're pregnant," Dimitri told Anastasia as he ran his hand over her rounded belly.

"I just wish that this baby would hurry up and get here," Anastasia grumbled. "I feel like I've been pregnant forever."

"She's stubborn like her Mama." Dimitri grinned.

"I am not stubborn," Anastasia retorted. "And anyway, how do you know it's a girl?"

"I just know, that's all." Dimitri winked at his wife. "Hurry up or we'll be late."

It was the day of Jules and Maria's wedding. They had postponed it for several weeks to give Olga and Tatiana time to recover from giving birth. Anastasia felt some twinges in her belly but decided to ignore them, as she'd had them before but they'd always gone away.

As Jules and Maria said their vows, Anastasia's cramps grew worse. She realized what was happening but, determined not to spoil Jules and Maria's special day, she bit her bottom lip and tried her best to ignore them.

The minister was just about to pronounce Jules and Maria husband and wife when suddenly Anastasia couldn't stand it anymore and let out a loud groan. Instantly, all eyes turned in her direction.

"Anya!" Dimitri cried, rushing to his wife.

"The baby!" Anastasia gasped. "It's coming, right now!"

Dimitri paled. "Come on, I'm taking you to the hospital," he mumbled, grabbing his wife's hand.

"There's no time for that!" Anastasia gasped.

Several guests lined chairs up in a row for her to lie down on, and Dimitri got ready to catch the baby. Within a few moments it was there, crying and flailing its arms and legs.

"It's a girl!" Dimitri exclaimed happily. Everyone cheered.

"I'm sorry I ruined your wedding, Maria," Anastasia said humbly.

"Oh, that's all right!" Maria exclaimed. "She's beautiful!"

Dimitri helped his wife and daughter into the car and drove them to the hospital. The minister hurriedly finished the ceremony, and then Jules and Maria left for their honeymoon.

Several hours later, Anastasia was resting comfortably in bed with her new daughter beside her in a crib and Dimitri sitting in a chair on the other side.

"Why didn't you say anything before, Anya?" Dimitri asked.

"I didn't want to interrupt Maria's wedding," Anastasia told him.

Dimitri laughed. "Well, that sort of ended up happening anyway, didn't it?"

Anastasia nodded guiltily.

"Never mind. The baby's here now, and Jules and Maria are finally married, so everything turned out fine anyway." He gazed tenderly at his wife. "I love you, Anya."

"I love you too, Mitya," Anastasia murmured. Dimitri put his arm around her, and she lay back against his chest as they both watched their new daughter sleep.


	14. Alexei And Rachel

Five Years Later

American tourist Rachel Brown was annoyed. She'd missed the train by a matter of seconds, and since the next one wouldn't be arriving for a couple of hours, she decided that she may as well take a walk around and see some of the sights in the immediate vicinity rather than simply sitting in the station for all that time.

Rachel noticed a row of shops across the street from the station and went to look inside them. When she was finished, a row of adjacent shops on a neighboring street caught her eye, and before she knew it, she was so absorbed with shopping that she lost all track of time. Suddenly she glanced at her wristwatch and gasped.

I'm going to miss the train again! Panic welled up inside her as she realized that she had no idea in which direction the train station was. She was completely lost. As she stood helplessly wondering what to do, she felt the first raindrops hit her face.

Well, this is just great! she thought to herself. I'm late for the train, I'm lost, and now it's raining!

Suddenly she found herself underneath an umbrella held by a very nice-looking young man of about her age. He was tall, with short, straight light brown hair and clear blue eyes.

"Hi!" he said with a smile. "Is it all right if I walk with you?"

"Sure," she said, feeling both great relief and something else. "I do appreciate your letting me use your umbrella."

"It's no problem at all," he told her. "I'm Alexei Romanov."

Why does that name sound so very familiar?

"It's nice to meet you, Alexei. I'm Rachel Brown," she told him.

"You're American," he said pleasantly.

"Yes." She smiled shyly.

"Well, which way are you headed?"

"I'm late to catch a train, and I just realized that I don't remember how to get to the train station."

"I'll take you there," Alexei said cheerfully. A few minutes later, they arrived at the station to find that Rachel had once again missed the train by mere seconds.

"Well, I guess I just wasn't meant to catch that train today," Rachel sighed, although for some reason it seemed not to matter quite as much now.

"It's all right," Alexei said. "My grandmother can have you driven there in her limo."

"Your grandmother must be quite well off to own a limo," Rachel commented.

"So, what does your father do?" Alexei asked, changing the subject. He'd only been interacting with people who weren't royalty or nobility for the past five years, and he still felt somewhat awkward about what seemed to him to be a wide chasm between his family and members of the general populace.

"He was a banker before he lost all his money in the stock market crash four years ago."

"I heard about that in the news over here," Alexei said. "I'm very sorry for your family's troubles."

"That's all right," Rachel said bravely. "I won the trip to Paris in a contest given by a perfume company here."

"Well, I'm very glad you got to come," Alexei told her. "It's a lovely city, very different from St. Petersburg."

"Is that where you're originally from?" asked Rachel, feeling that pieces of a puzzle seemed to be fitting into place.

"Yes. I've been living in Paris for five years now."

"How'd you ever get out of Russia?"

"My brother-in-law, Dimitri, had connections." Alexei grinned.

By this time they'd arrived at the Dowager Empress' villa. Rachel gasped when she saw how large and grand it was.

"Come on in," Alexei encouraged her.

The Dowager Empress, Nicholas, and Alexandra were all home. Since becoming parents, Dimitri and Anastasia had moved into a home of their own nearby.

"Grandmama, Papa, Mama, this is Rachel," said Alexei. "She's visiting from the United States, and she missed her train. I offered to have her driven to wherever she needed to go."

"It's lovely to meet you, dear," said the Dowager Empress. "Why don't you come in and have a seat?"

"Thank you, ma'am," Rachel said politely.

"Tell me about your family," said Alexandra.

"There's me, my parents, and my two younger brothers, Matthew and William," said Rachel. "My grandmother's a widow, and she lives with us, too. We all live in Arlington, Virginia."

"I've always had a great deal of admiration for the American people," said Nicholas.

"I was just a little girl when the Russian Revolution happened," said Rachel. "I remember how I cried over what happened to the Tsar and his family. It was the saddest thing I'd ever heard."

An awkward silence followed, during which Alexei took Rachel's hand under the table and gently squeezed it. "Thank you, but there's no reason to be sad anymore," he told her.


	15. Rachel Meets Alexei's Sisters

Rachel frowned. "What do you mean?"

"They're alive again, Rachel. You're looking at one of them right now." Alexei grinned.

Rachel gasped. "You mean...you're that Alexei?"

"One and the same." Alexei laughed.

"I don't believe it!" Rachel exclaimed. "You mean you're actually the tsarevich?"

"Well, not actually," Alexei said. "My father abdicated, so I'm just a regular boy now."

"But I thought you died..."

"I can't really explain it. All I know is that I'm alive now, thanks to my sister Anastasia. She defeated Rasputin and brought us all back."

"Anastasia? Oh, I'd love to meet her!"

"You will, soon," Alexei promised. "She's married to Dimitri, and they have two little girls, Kira and Inessa."

"What about your other sisters?"

"Olga's married to Pavel, and they have a son named Nicholas and a daughter named Oxana. Tatiana's husband's name is also Dimitri, and they have two sons, Alexander and Anatoly."

"Jules and Maria got lucky. They'd decided on a French name for a son and a Russian name for a daughter, and they had twins, Luc and Lara, so they got to use them both."

Rachel ended up visiting for most of the day, and then the Dowager Empress' chauffeur drove her back to her motel.

One day soon afterwards, Rachel was once again visiting Alexei when all four of his sisters visited with their husbands and children.

"Oh, they're so cute!" Rachel exclaimed when she saw the twins. Luc and Lara both had dark brown hair and brown eyes like their father and looked almost exactly alike except that Lara had longer hair which she wore in pigtails.

"None of us have ever met an American before," said Tatiana. "I've always wondered what it would be like to live there."

"Times are hard right now," Rachel told her. "A depression's been going on for several years now, and a lot of people are out of work."

"I'm sorry to hear that," said Tatiana.

"I love how they play so well together," Alexandra remarked as she watched Nicholas, Alexander, and Kira at play.

"They're almost more like brothers and sister than cousins," Olga agreed.

After awhile the youngest child, Inessa, became cranky, so Anastasia picked her up and cuddled her.

"I think she's teething again," said Anastasia.

"Poor baby," said Maria.

"Papa! Look at me!" cried Kira, proudly doing a somersault.

"Look at you! You're such a big girl!" Dimitri scooped her up and kissed her cheek.

"She's such a Papa's girl!" said Tatiana.

"She's adorable!" said Rachel. "Can I hold her?"

"Want to go to Rachel?" Anastasia asked the little girl. Inessa clung to her mother and shook her head.

"She's shy," Anastasia told Rachel apologetically. "Just give her some time."

"Hi," said little Oxana, tugging on Rachel's skirt.

"Hi, sweetie!" said Rachel. "Want to sit on my lap?"

Oxana nodded, and Rachel picked her up and held her.

"Everybody's her best friend," Olga commented.

Rachel held the little girl tight and smelled the fresh scent of her hair.

"Is she finally sleeping through the night?" Tatiana asked her older sister.

"Much better now," Olga replied. "I moved her bedtime from seven o'clock to eight o'clock, and that worked wonders."

"That's the time I put my two to bed as well," said Tatiana, and Maria and Anastasia nodded in agreement.

"Do you still bathe the twins together to save time?" Anastasia asked Maria.

"Not since they've gotten older," Maria replied.

The families visited for awhile longer, then returned to their own homes one by one. Afterwards Alexei and Rachel sat together silently for a long time.

"I love your family," Rachel told Alexei.

"Thank you," said Alexei. "They all seem quite fond of you as well."

"All your nieces and nephews are simply darling!"

"Yeah, I know." Alexei grinned. "Mama always tells me Anatoly reminds her so much of myself at his age."

It makes me want one of my own, Rachel thought to herself, but she didn't say anything to Alexei.

"Say, Rachel, how much longer are you planning to stay in Paris?" asked Alexei.

"At least a couple more weeks," Rachel told him. Or maybe longer, she thought to herself.

"How would you like to stay here at my grandmother's instead of at the motel? She's got plenty of room, and that way, we'd get to see each other every day. I'd have to ask her first, of course, but I'm sure it would be all right."

"That sounds wonderful!" exclaimed Rachel, overjoyed at the thought of being able to see Alexei every day.


	16. Vova

As it turned out, it was fine with the Dowager Empress, so Rachel packed her things and moved into the room beside Alexei's. He fetched her for breakfast every morning, and most days they spent the entire day together, going for walks or on picnics, playing games, or just sitting and talking.

"It looks like love is in the air once more," Anastasia teased her brother.

"Shut up, Nastya," Alexei replied with a big grin.

One day a young man whom Alexei had never seen but who looked vaguely familiar knocked on the front door.

"My name is Vova," he told Alexei. "I'm the son of Mathilde Kschessinska, a ballet teacher here in Paris, and I'm here to meet my father."

"But I don't know your father," said Alexei.

"On the contrary, you know him very well," said Vova. "My father is your father. I'm your brother."

Alexei gasped and back away from the door, shaking his head vigorously. "No, no," he muttered. "It's not true. It can't be!"

"But it is true," Vova insisted. "He doesn't know about me. He'd already gotten engaged to your mother before I was born."

"I don't believe you," Alexei told him.

"Whether you believe me or not, it's true," said Vova. "And I'm not leaving until I meet him."

"Might as well get this nonsense out of the way once and for all," Alexei muttered, going to fetch his father.

Nicholas and Alexandra were playing cards in the den when Alexei arrived.

"Papa, there's a boy named Vova here who said you're his father," Alexei told Nicholas.

Nicholas frowned. "But I don't have a son named Vova. I don't have any other sons at all but you."

"That's what I told him, but he wouldn't listen," said Alexei.

Quickly Nicholas and Alexandra went to the door where Vova waited.

"I'm Mathilde Kschessinsky's son," Vova told Nicholas, who turned pale.

Alexandra frowned. "Is it true, Nicky?"

"Why didn't she tell me?" Nicholas muttered.

"So it's true, then?" asked Alexandra.

Nicholas stared at the floor and didn't say anything. Alexandra burst into tears and ran to their bedroom.

"I'm sorry," Nicholas said to Vova. "She never told me about you. I wish she had."

Scene Break

In her bedroom, Alexandra cried and cried. Nicholas went to her and put his arms around her.

"I'm so sorry, Sunny," he said.

"I thought that I was the only woman you'd ever loved," Alexandra sobbed.

"You are the only woman I've ever truly loved," said Nicholas. "Mathilde was a good friend and a lot of fun to be with, but I never loved her the way I love you."

"I can't live here with you anymore," Alexandra said. She took her suitcase from the closet and began packing her things.

"Please, Sunny," said Nicholas. "We've been through so much together. We have five beautiful children and eight beautiful grandchildren. I love you with all my heart, and I swear to you I've never even looked at another woman in all the years we've been married. Please don't throw away everything we have just because of a mistake I made when I was younger."

"I'm sorry, Nicky," said Alexandra. "But I just can't live with this."

She finished packing and was gone, Nicholas watching helplessly with tears in his eyes.

Scene Break

"What's wrong?" Rachel asked Alexei.

"My mother has left my father," he told her. "They found out that Papa has another son besides me, and it made Mama so upset that she left."

"But where did she go?"

"Right now she's staying at a motel here in Paris, but she's planning to join my Uncle Ernie and his family in Germany soon."

"And what about your father's other son?"

"His name is Vova. He said he just wanted to meet my father, and hopefully my sisters too. I thought there was no way possible he could be telling the truth, but I was wrong."

"Well, you can't really blame your mother for being upset," said Rachel. "I'm sure my mother would be upset too if my father suddenly found out that he had another son besides my brothers."

"But my parents have always loved each other so much," said Alexei. "I just can't believe something like this could tear them apart. I can't believe anything could ever tear them apart. I'll call all my sisters and get them together for an emergency family meeting," he decided. "Together, we'll come up with a plan for getting our parents back together."


	17. Vova's Plan

"So, what's this craziness about us having a half brother named Vova?" asked Tatiana once the five siblings were all together in the living room. "That's the most ridiculous story I've ever heard!"

"Apparently, Papa had a fling with a ballerina named Mathilde Kschessinsky before he was engaged to Mama," Alexei said glumly. "Vova is her son."

A moment of shocked silence followed.

"Poor Mama," Maria said softly.

"So I'm not really the oldest, after all?" asked Olga. She sounded crestfallen.

"Where is he?" asked Anastasia. "I want to meet him!"

Just then the doorbell chimed.

"That might be him right now," said Alexei. It was.

"I'm so glad to see you're all together," Vova announced to the group. "Now I can go over my plan with you."

"Plan?" Tatiana's eyes narrowed suspiciously.

"I'm going to assassinate Josef Stalin, overthrow the Communists, and install Alexei as the Tsar," Vova bragged. "Our father abdicated, so now it's his turn. And all of you are going to help me."

There was a brief silence followed by peals of laughter.

"This is a joke, right?" asked Olga.

"I'm dead serious," Vova told her. "I have an army of dedicated followers who are ready to invade Russia as soon as I give the word."

"If you've got a dedicated group of followers, why do you need our help?" asked Tatiana.

"What chance is there that the people of Russia will accept Alexei as their Tsar without the support of his family?"

"But that's a crazy idea!" Maria exclaimed. "Stalin and the Communists are all far too powerful to overthrow. We'd all only end up dead...again!"

"I'm going to do it. And you're all going to help me," Vova said calmly. Proudly he held up a folded piece of paper. "This is a letter that your father...our father, rather...wrote to my mother. As you'll notice, it is in our father's handwriting, so it's no fake. There are lots more where this one came from, too. Don't even bother asking where they are because I'm not going to tell you, but I assure you, they do exist. If you, my own brother and sisters, refuse to help me with my plan, I'll have no other choice but to show this letter and all the others to your mother."

He handed the letter to Alexei, who quickly read it, gasped, and passed it to Olga, who passed it to the others in turn.

"If Mama reads that, she'll never come back to Papa," Tatiana said, and the others all nodded their agreement.

With a defeated sigh, Alexei turned to Vova, who grinned triumphantly. "What do you want us to do?"

Scene Break

"No, I will not do it!" Dimitri rolled his eyes at Anastasia. "I promised I'd go straight when we got married, remember?"

"Please, Mitya." Anastasia looked at her husband with puppy dog eyes. "It's for my mother! If she ever read those letters, she'd be devastated!"

Dimitri sighed. "Well, all right. But remember, it was your idea."

Moments later, they were outside Vova's apartment, and Dimitri was picking the lock on the window.

"Hurry!" whispered Anastasia. "He could come back at any time!"

"Yeah, and the first thing he'd hear is your big mouth." Dimitri gave the lock one last yank. "There. Now it's open!"

Stealthily they crawled through the open window.

"Now, where would you start looking for a secret stash of letters?" asked Dimitri.

"I'll bet I know where they are," said Anastasia. A moment later she saw them. "Ta da!" she cried triumphantly. She snatched the top letter off the stack, ripped it open, and eagerly began to read.

"Look at this!" she cried. "You've never said anything like that to me!"

"Of course not. You're a princess." He snorted in annoyance.

"Did you ever say anything like that to a girl, Mitya?"

"Well...yeah, I have, but...let's just get out of here, all right? At this rate we're gonna get caught red-handed, and it'll all be your fault for being so darn nosy!"

They lifted the sack containing all the letters and quickly slipped back out the window with it. Then they hurried home, where Dimitri grabbed a can of gasoline and a book of matches and carried the sack into the back yard. Within seconds the sack was ablaze. Anastasia watched it burn with overwhelming relief. Now her mother would never know all the things her father had written to Mathilde Kschessinsky.

Scene Break

Rachel was sitting in a chair outside when she suddenly noticed a funny smell. Instantly the world went blurry and then faded to black. When she came to, she found herself in completely unfamiliar surroundings. She stared into Vova's gloating face and felt a sharp stab of fear.


	18. Showdown

Rachel couldn't believe her eyes. She was strapped to a chair on a pier, and she could hear a ticking sound coming from underneath the chair. Vova's eyes glowed wickedly, and Rachel felt an icy chill run down her spine.

"Alexei, or someone working for him, has taken some important documents from me," Vova began. "In return, I've taking something even more important to him. You."

"I haven't the slightest idea what you're talking about," Rachel told him.

"These documents were very important to me in my quest to become the next Tsar of Russia, and now they're gone!" Vova growled.

"Alexei's next in line to be the Tsar, not you!" Rachel cried indignantly.

"Did you think I was actually planning to allow Alexei to be the Tsar?" Vova laughed cruelly. "He's just like our father. That milksop would let the Bolsheviks take over again while he was off cruising or playing tennis."

Or fighting a war, Rachel wanted to counter.

"No! It is I, Vova, who shall be the next Tsar!" Vova roared triumphantly. "I'm older than Alexei. He just had the good fortune to be born legitimate," Vova snarled enviously. "His mother is royalty, while mine is only a ballerina. My mother could have given him healthy sons, not hemophiliacs. But that doesn't matter. Legitimate or not, I'm older than Alexei, and I'm taking the throne."

"The Russian people would never accept an illegitimate son as the Tsar! Not when there's a living legitimate son," Rachel said.

"A living legitimate son." Vova chuckled. "But suppose Alexei took the throne and, a month or so later, suffered an unfortunate accident. With the only legitimate heir gone, what other choice would they have?"

Rachel gasped in horror. Vova planned to murder Alexei!

"No!" she screamed, struggling against her bonds. "How dare you!"

"Who's going to stop me?" laughed Vova. "Come to think of it, a Tsar needs a Tsarina, doesn't he?" Vova lifted a few strands of Rachel's hair and let them fall. "You're not royalty. You're not even European, but I suppose you'll do. So, how would you like to rule Russia with me?"

Scene Break

Alexei could almost hear his heartbeat pounding as he sped to the designated pier. Dear God, please let me get there before he does anything to Rachel, he prayed.

He'd just come from Dimitri and Anastasia's, where he'd learned what had become of the letters his father had written to Vova's mother.

"But now he's got Rachel!" he'd wailed. "If I don't have those letters to return to him, he'll kill her!"

"No, he won't." Dimitri winked at his brother-in-law.

"What's up your sleeve?" Alexei asked warily.

Dimitri slipped a cold, hard object into his hand. "Show him this and you won't have any trouble. Don't ask me where I got it. I'm not going to tell you." Although Dimitri was only four years older than his brother-in-law, he was light years ahead of him in worldly wisdom.

Alexei gasped, but took the object and quickly slipped it into his pocket.

At last Alexei arrived at the pier where Vova stood triumphantly a few feet away from Rachel, who was tied to a chair with an explosive ticking underneath it.

"Just in the nick of time, brother dear," Vova sneered when he saw Alexei. "Did you bring the letters?"

"Let her go, Vova," Alexei demanded. "She has nothing to do with any of this. She's innocent!"

"Who's going to make me?" Vova taunted, nodding toward the explosive underneath the chair in which Rachel sat. "You have...let's see...six minutes to tell me where you hid the letters before your girlfriend explodes into a million pieces!"

Alexei felt the revolver in his pocket and was suddenly transported back in time. He was in a tiny, cold, dark basement with stone walls. His family, except for Anastasia, were there with him. Some other people were too. Dr. Botkin and some servants. A dog was barking. Shots rang out. Someone screamed. The dog now whimpered in pain. Oh, Jimmy...

Alexei had to fight a wave of nausea just to stay on his feet.

"What does he mean, Alexei?" asked Rachel.

"Shut up!" Vova slapped Rachel across the face, making her nose bleed a little.

That did it. In a flash Alexei's hand holding the revolver shot out of his pocket, a bullet sailed deep into Vova's thigh, and Vova collapsed in agony. Alexei hurried to free Rachel from the chair, and, cradling her in his arms, ran as fast as he could. He heard the explosion behind him and realized how close he'd been. He didn't stop to look at Vova, writhing in agony near the shattered remains of the chair. Very well he knew what the sight of blood, especially his own, did to him.

Alexei ran until his legs ached and his lungs were burning, then collapsed with Rachel into the grass. She was shaking with fear, and her hands and feet were still bound. Tenderly Alexei untied the ropes around them, then held her tightly and soothed her.

"Sh. It's all right, Rachel. I've got you. You're safe." Her nose was still bleeding a little. Alexei wiped it with his handkerchief.

"You saved me, Alexei..." Rachel's voice was full of wonder.

"Did he hurt you, Rayushka?"

"No, I'm all right."

"Did he..." Alexei couldn't bring himself to say the words.

"Oh, no. He didn't do that." Rachel thought of the leer that had been on Vova's face as he had touched her hair and shuddered involuntarily.

"Thank God." Relief swept over Alexei.

"Alexei..." Rachel was crying softly, tears of relief running down her face. Alexei kissed them away.

"It's all right, Rayushka. Everything's all right now." He caressed her, rubbed her back, kissed her hair. "I love you, Rayushka."

"I love you too, Alexei."

Softly his lips met hers. Her fingers gently swept his hair back as she felt his arms go around her and hold her close.

"Come on. Let's go back home." He helped her to stand, and they were on their way.


	19. Aftermath

Once inside his grandmother's home, Alexei sat Rachel on the sofa and brought her a cup of hot herbal tea. Then he called his sisters to tell them what had happened.

"I knew that Vova was bad news from the beginning," Olga said once they'd all gathered together again.

"And to think I actually felt sorry for him because he grew up without knowing our father," said Tatiana.

"What you did was so brave, Alexei," said Maria. "You saved Rachel's life."

"Nobody had better not ever call me 'Baby' again," said Alexei.

"They won't. I'll make sure of it," Tatiana promised him.

"Alexei shot Vova in the thigh, not in the head or chest," Dimitri mused later when he and Anastasia were alone. "So he shot to incapacitate, not to kill."

"Can't you see, Mitya? He couldn't shoot to kill. Not someone with Romanov blood. Not after what happened that night in the Ipatiev House."

"Oh, yes. Of course." Dimitri was immediately contrite. He went to his wife and embraced her. "It's all right, darling. It's all over now, and everyone's safe."

Scene Break

It was a day or so later. Vova had been taken to the hospital by ambulance, and Alexei had returned to the pier to clean up the mess.

"Monsieur." Alexei looked to see who had spoken. She was a petite woman with dark hair and exotic features, and she looked to be about fifty years old. When she saw Alexei's face, she gasped with surprise. "You're his son."

"I'm Alexei Romanov."

"I could tell right away that you're his son," the woman continued. "You're so like him. Your voice, your mannerisms...everything about you."

Alexei frowned.

"Oh, I'm sorry," the woman said. "I'm Vova's mother. My name is Mathilde Kschessinska."

"I had to do it. He was going to kill Rachel."

"I know you did," Mathilde said sadly. "I know what my son is. He isn't like you at all. He didn't have a positive male role model when he was growing up like you did."

"How is he?"

"The doctors were able to remove the bullet from his thigh. He's lost a lot of blood, but they think he'll make it, although there's always the danger of blood poisoning." Mathilde paused. "He's not your brother, Alexei."

Alexei gasped, shocked.

"That's what he told you, isn't it? It's only true in his fantasies. Vova is related to you, but he's your second cousin, not your brother. His father is your father's first cousin Andrei Vladimirovich."

Alexei didn't know what to say.

"Listen, Alexei. Vova stole some letters that were very special to me. If you could help me get them back, I'd appreciate it."

"Why should I?" Alexei asked shortly. He was thinking about how much he missed his mother.

"I never wanted to take the place of your mother, Alexei." Mathilde's dark eyes gazed into Alexei's. He felt himself go weak inside. God, she must have been beautiful when she was thirty years younger...

"I knew from the beginning that he couldn't marry me," Mathilde went on. "He had to marry a woman of royal blood, a woman like your mother. I knew that I could never be the Tsarina, and I never wanted to be. Ballet is my life. I could never have given that up, not for anybody or anything."

Almost of its own accord, Alexei's hand reached to touch her hair. He thought of Rachel and his hand instantly dropped. I'm not like my father in every way...

"The letters were all I had left of him...of us. They were so very precious to me. I'd give anything to have them back."

"They're gone, Madame Kschessinska." Alexei swallowed a lump in his throat. "I'm not at liberty to say what happened to them, but they're gone forever. I'm very sorry."

"Oh, no!" Mathilde collapsed into tears. Alexei held her and comforted her without even giving a thought as to whether it was right or wrong. Eventually the sobs subsided.

"I must go now," Mathilde said. "Good-bye, Tsarevich Romanov...again."

"Good-bye...beautiful ballerina." Alexei didn't even realize that he was crying until he felt the tears wet upon his cheeks.

Scene Break

"Papa?" Anastasia asked softly as she eased the door open. Nicholas looked up with red-rimmed eyes.

"Sunny? Mathilde?" He was very confused.

"No, Papa. It's me, Nastya."

"She's gone, Nastya. Your mother's gone," Nicholas sobbed.

"I know, Papa. But we're going to get her back. Dimitri and I are going to Germany soon and we're going to talk her into coming back. Dimitri can talk anyone into doing anything. You know that."

"I hurt her, Nastya. I knew that what I was doing was wrong but I did it anyway. I thought that everything would turn out all right, but look what's happened."

"Vova isn't your son, Papa. He's your cousin Andrei Vladimirovich's son. He lied about his age. He's not really older than Olga. Mathilde told Alexei that he's only a couple of years older than him."

"There's no way he could be my son, then." Nicholas' shoulders sagged with relief. "I don't owe him anything."

"What did you think you owed him?"

"At least an explanation for why I was never around."

Anastasia sighed. "You're too hard on yourself, Papa. And like I said, we're going to find Mama and bring her back. When she finds out that Vova isn't really your son she'll come back. I know she will."

"I sure do hope you're right, Nastya." Anastasia held her father's head to her bosom as he sobbed. She thought of all the times he'd comforted her as a child and was glad that she was there to comfort him when he needed it.

Scene Break

Grand Duke Ernest Ludwig of Hesse was chatting with his best friend, Erich Strauss, when he received a very unexpected visitor.

"Alix! You're alive!" he cried with joy as he embraced his younger sister. "I'd heard that the Bolsheviks had murdered you and the children."

"It's a long story, but yes, we're back," Alexandra replied. "I've left Nicky. He betrayed me and fathered a child with a ballerina named Mathilde Kschessinska."

Ernie shook his head. "I knew that nothing good would come of it when you left the true faith."

"It was only for love of Nicky that I did it, and now I realize what a mistake that was."

"Come on in," Ernie said. "It's wonderful to see you again, little sister. You may stay as long as you want or need to. This is my friend Erich Strauss."

"It's very nice to meet you, Erich." Alexandra smiled. "I'm Alix. No longer am I to be known as Alexandra, and no longer am I of the Russian Orthodox faith. Once again I'm Alix of Hesse, and I'm a Lutheran."

"It's a pleasure to meet you as well, Alix of Hesse." Alix thought that Erich had one of the friendliest smiles she'd ever seen. Erich thought that Alix was simply beautiful.


	20. A Charismatic New Leader

Three Years Later

Alix cuddled up in bed beside her husband, Erich Strauss. The three years she'd been married to Erich had been filled with happiness and love. The only thing she disliked about her present life was the infrequency with which she saw her children and grandchildren. Shortly after her arrival in Germany, Dimitri and Anastasia had come to plead with her to return to Nicholas. She'd told them that she could never forgive Nicholas for his affair with Mathilde, and that she loved Erich now.

As Alix had missed the big city life, they'd moved from Hesse to Berlin. Once again Alix's days were filled with Bible study, prayer, sewing, needlepoint, reading, and playing cards with Erich. Erich, like Nicholas before him, was a doting husband, showering Alix with attention and gifts. In many ways he reminded her of Nicholas. When she was with Erich, she was happy, and yet, when Erich wasn't there, sometimes she missed Nicholas so badly that it was almost like a physical pain. There were just so many memories they'd shared together. The first time they'd met, when she'd been just twelve and he'd been sixteen. The day he'd proposed to her. The day of their wedding. The births of each of their children. The day Nicholas had abdicated the throne. The day they'd been forced to leave the Winter Palace for Siberia. The last terrifying moments in the Ipatiev House.

Sometimes she dreamed about him at night and woke up crying. When Erich asked her what the matter was, she couldn't tell him.

"Well, good morning, my darling," Erich said, noticing that his wife was awake.

"Good morning, my love," Alix said with a smile.

"I'm so glad to see a lovely smile on your face this morning," said Erich. "You've been looking a bit sad lately. I've been concerned about you."

"It's nothing," Alix sighed. "Old memories just return to haunt me sometimes."

"As difficult as it may seem, you need to let go of those old memories," Erich said gently. "They belong in the past. Today's a new day, and we must live in the present." He kissed her lips.

"What shall we do today, dearest?" asked Alix.

"I was hoping that you'd agree to come to Tempelhofer Feld with me today," said Erich. "A charismatic new leader is to speak there today. He has a vision to restore our nation to its former glory, to rescue it from the depths of despair in which it has lain since our defeat in the Great War."

"What's this new leader's name?"

"Adolf Hitler."

Scene Break

"Another letter from your family?" Alexei asked his wife. Rachel, who was heavily pregnant with her first child, had a severe backache. She was lying on her side so that Alexei could give her a back rub.

"Yes," Rachel told her husband glumly.

"Has your father found another job yet?" asked Alexei.

"Not yet," Rachel sighed.

"I do wish they'd let us help them," said Alexei.

"It's a matter of pride, you know," Rachel replied. "They always say that they want to be able to give to their children, not take from them."

"But it isn't taking if we're offering," Alexei pointed out.

"I know," said Rachel. "But that isn't the way they see it. Things did get better for them for a couple of years after President Roosevelt came up with the New Deal, but now they've gotten quite bad again."

"Well, hard times can't last forever," Alexei said cheerfully. "I'm sure something will come along soon that will get your country back on its feet, and then your family will be just fine."

Scene Break

Alix was mesmerized. Adolf Hitler was the most enthusiastic and forceful speaker she'd ever heard. As he spoke, his words stirred her very soul.

"No people have yearned more for peace than the German people, but neither has any other people come to know the terrible consequences of feeble credulity than ours has! For behind us, prior to the National Socialist accession to power, there lies a period of fifteen years which comprised a single succession of suppression, of extortion, of rights denied, and hence of unspeakable spiritual and material distress."

"In our country, the ideals of Liberalism and Democracy have not rescued the German nation from the worst violations conceivable in history. Therefore, National Socialism has had to establish a new and more effective ideal in order to restore to our people these basic human rights which had been denied it for one and a half decades."

"What a dynamic new leader we have!" Erich said to Alix as they were on their way home later. "If anyone can bring honor and glory to our nation, he can!"

"I suppose so," Alix replied. She was thinking about the first time Nicholas had kissed her, how right it had felt. But had he kissed Mathilde the same way? She knew that he probably had, and that knowledge was very painful.

After Erich went to bed that night, Alix stayed up to finish writing a letter to Anastasia. She'd finished the letter and was heading for the bedroom when she realized that she and Erich weren't alone in the house. She gasped with shock as her eyes fell on the figure of a man she'd thought she'd never see again.

"Hello, Alexandra Feodorovna," said Rasputin. "Long time no see..."


	21. Things To Come

"My name is Alix Strauss," Alix said stiffly. "And how on earth did you get here, when my daughter killed you nine years ago?"

"I have been suffering great torment in the afterlife for the harm I brought to your family and many others," Rasputin told her. "I have just been offered a shortening of my sentence in exchange for coming here to warn you of things to come. The man you heard speak today, Adolf Hitler, is an evil man. He's one of the most, if not the most, evil people of all time. More evil than I was, even."

"Erich thinks he's a strong leader who will bring our nation back to its former glory."

"Your husband is mistaken, Alexandra. There will soon be another war involving many nations, a terrible war, one even worse than the Great War. There will be much suffering and death."

Suddenly Alix realized that she was no longer standing in her house but what was obviously a battlefield. The bodies of injured and dead men lay everywhere. Alix saw that she was standing beside a man lying on the ground who was bleeding copiously from a large wound in his chest. She looked into his eyes and saw the pain and fear there. Only a few feet away from him lay another man who was perfectly still. Already flies buzzed busily around the exposed areas of his body. Similar scenes extended for as far in the distance as Alix could see. Her mind recoiled in horror.

"Stalingrad," Rasputin said solemnly. "The bloodiest battle in history."

"Stalingrad?"

"You know it as Tsaritsyn."

"Oh, yes. Tsaritsyn."

"These are the countrymen of your children," Rasputin continued. "Slaughtered by your own countrymen."

"Oh, no!" Alix sobbed.

"Germany and her allies will be defeated," Rasputin told her. "But victory will come at the cost of over half a million lives, including forty thousand civilians. But that's not the worst of it."

Alix now found herself standing at a train station, watching as hundreds of bedraggled people were herded out of the cars like livestock. As the men, women and children disembarked from the train, Alix noticed that they were being separated into two lines. One line was composed of healthy young men and women, and the other was composed of children, elderly people, and the sick or crippled.

"Watch what happens to those in the second line," said Rasputin.

Alix watched as the group was led into a building and told to strip. Once they were naked, they were led into what appeared to be shower stalls. Within seconds the screaming began, and it continued until every single person lay dead. The bodies were unceremoniously dragged to ovens and cremated.

"Those are the more fortunate ones," Rasputin told Alix. He led her to another building, one which housed those who had been in the first line of an earlier train load. Here Alix saw walking skeletons, fully grown men who weighed at most fifty or sixty pounds each. A thin layer of skin covered their bony frames, of which Alix could clearly see the outline of each rib. In their eyes she could see that not a shred of sanity remained. Occasionally one of the men would fall, and when that happened, he just lay there until the sadistic-looking guards came to drag him to the same crematorium ovens.

"They are Jews," Rasputin told Alix. "Six million of them in all will have died before it's all over with. Also gypsies, homosexuals, the mentally ill, and many others."

"Do you mean to tell me that I have to choose between my heritage and what is right?" Alix wailed.

"Of course not," said Rasputin. "You can always join the Resistance."

Alix found herself standing in a prison cell that was occupied by three young adults, two men and a woman.

"Their names are Sophie and Hans Scholl and Christoph Probst," Rasputin told Alix. "They belong to the White Rose Society, a group dedicated to fighting Adolf Hitler and his regime. They were caught distributing pamphlets at their university."

Alix watched, horrified, as first Sophie, then the two men, were led to a guillotine. She covered her eyes as the blade fell.

"I must warn them!" Alix cried.

Rasputin shook his head. "There's nothing you can do, Alexandra. The die has been cast. History will proceed as it must."

"Then please tell me that the perpetrators of these horrible deeds will not go unpunished!"

"Adolf Hitler will kill himself in an underground bunker in Berlin on April 30, 1945, to avoid being captured by the Soviets," Rasputin said. "On May 9 of that same year, Germany will surrender, and the bloodshed will finally come to an end, but not before millions have suffered and died."

Alix found that she was once again standing in her own home.

"I must tell Erich the things you've shown me!" she exclaimed.

Rasputin shook his head again. "He won't listen to you. In his heart he has already committed himself to the forces of evil."

Alix was devastated.

"The only person you can save is yourself," Rasputin told her. "Return to Paris, Alexandra Feodorovna, while you still can. In just a few years it will be too late. Go back to your Nicky. He loves you and misses you dearly. In the three years since you left him, not a day has passed that he hasn't cried."

"If he loves me so much, then why did he have a relationship with Mathilde after he told me that he loved me?"

"He was young, Alexandra. You were in Germany, and he was in Russia. He loved you, but he had to wait a few years before he could be with you. Mathilde was right there, ready and willing. She was beautiful, and the temptation was just too strong for him to resist."

"But I waited for him!"

"You were a bit younger, and as you well know, young ladies don't have the same opportunities that young men do."

Alix glanced toward the bedroom. "Erich has always treated me with the utmost respect. He's been completely devoted to me since we met. He's my brother's best friend, and he's of my own people."

"Nicholas was devoted to you from the time you became engaged to him. You know that deep down inside, you still love him. Don't you think you've punished him enough?"

Alexandra gave the bedroom one final glance, and as Rasputin began to dematerialize, she fled the house and ran toward the railroad station as quickly as she could.


	22. Unexpected Discovery

Mathilde Kschessinska cursed under her breath as she felt the rim of the flat tire bounce against the gravel of the road. She didn't know anything about changing flat tires so would have to go for help and, to make matters worse, rain was suddenly coming down in sheets. Mathilde decided to wait the storm out, but as she sat watching the rain fall for what seemed like ages and the storm showed no signs of abating, she grew impatient and decided to brave the rain anyway.

Nicholas was home alone when he heard the doorbell ring. He saw the soaking wet woman standing in his doorway and was astounded when he realized that he knew her.

"Mathilde! What are you doing here?"

"I was on my way to my ballet class and one of my tires went flat," Mathilde told him. "I tried to wait the storm out, but it just went on and on so I decided to go for help anyway."

"You're drenched to the bone!" Nicholas exclaimed. "I think I might still have one of Sunny's robes around. You can borrow that until your own clothes get dry."

"Thank you," said Mathilde. She followed him to his bedroom, where he looked through the closet and found a robe Alix had left behind. He handed it to Mathilde, and she went into the bathroom and changed into it. Then she draped her wet clothes over the heater so that they would dry faster and rejoined Nicholas in the bedroom.

"So how's my cousin Andrei?" Nicholas asked her.

"He's very well, thank you," said Mathilde.

"And how's Vova?"

"Better now. He's finally accepted that Stalin's much too powerful to be overthrown, and even if he wasn't, the Russian people would never accept him as the Tsar."

"Being the Tsar isn't really all it's cracked up to be anyway," Nicholas chuckled. It was the first time he'd laughed in months.

"We're very grateful that your son and daughter-in-law didn't press charges against him for kidnapping and attempted murder," Mathilde continued. "Vova's very sorry about what happened. He said he didn't know what got into him. He's just always been so insanely jealous of Alexei, and I guess it just got out of control."

"If he knew everything my son's been through, he wouldn't be jealous of him at all," said Nicholas.

"How's your family?" asked Mathilde.

"Everyone's fine. I'm going to be a grandfather again soon." Nicholas grinned.

"That's wonderful!"

Just then the doorbell rang.

Scene Break

To Alix, it seemed as if the train couldn't move fast enough. Memories of the horrors Rasputin had just shown her kept flooding her mind, threatening to drive her mad. She longed to see Nicholas' face and to feel his arms around her again. What he'd done had hurt her deeply, but she realized that she'd been impulsive and foolish to have run away as she had. Perhaps if she hadn't reacted so emotionally, if she'd given Nicholas more of a chance to justify his actions, then she wouldn't have fled right into the arms of danger as she had. She only prayed that it wasn't too late, that Nicholas would still take her back.

It was still raining hard when the cab arrived at Nicholas' home, but Alix hardly noticed as she dashed to the porch and rang the doorbell.

"Sunny!" Nicholas cried happily, and in an instant she was in his arms again, being clasped tightly to his breast. "I missed you so much!"

"I was such a fool," Alix mumbled from within the safety of his arms. "Can you ever forgive me?"

"Of course I can!"

"And I'll do my best to be accepting of your other son," Alix continued. "Perhaps I could even come to love him for your sake, although never like I love Alexei, of course."

"But he isn't my son," Nicholas told her.

"He isn't?"

"He lied about his age," Nicholas said. "He's really eight years younger than he claimed to be. He's only a couple of years older than Alexei, so there's no possible way he could be my son. You know that I was always faithful to you after we got engaged, Sunny."

Right at that moment, Mathilde had a coughing fit. As Nicholas had forgotten to close the bedroom door when he'd gone to answer the doorbell, Alix was able to hear her down the hallway.

"There's someone here with you!" Alix exclaimed, heading in the direction of the coughing.

"Please, Sunny, it's not what it looks like," said Nicholas, running after her.

Alix took one look at Mathilde sitting on Nicholas' bed wearing her robe and gasped. Mathilde saw her at the same time and screamed. Nicholas, just a step or two behind Alix, saw what was happening and felt his heart sink to his shoes.


	23. Reunited At last

"What, exactly, is the meaning of this?" Alix demanded angrily, her eyes blazing. "What on earth is she doing sitting on your bed wearing my robe?

"I assure you, darling, there's a perfectly innocent explanation," Nicholas told her. "Mathilde had a flat tire and came here for help. Her clothes were soaking wet, so I gave her your robe to wear until they were dry."

Alix went to look out the window and saw Mathilde's car beside the curb. Then she looked at the heater and saw Mathilde's wet clothes drying.

"It's true, then?" she asked Mathilde. Mathilde nodded. Alix sat down beside her on the bed.

"I saw Rasputin," she told Nicholas. Nicholas gasped, shocked. "He showed me things. Horrible things." Alix began to sob. Nicholas just stared at her.

"There's going to be another war, Nicky," she said. "A worse one than the Great War, even. An evil man is coming to power. Many innocent people are going to die because of him."

"Who is he?"

"His name is Adolf Hitler. I wanted to warn Erich about him, but Rasputin said he wouldn't listen."

"Erich?"

"My...husband."

Nicholas looked stricken.

"I've left him for good, and I'm never going back," Alix assured him.

"I've head of this man, Adolf Hitler," said Nicholas.

"Rasputin said he can't be stopped. He told me that I had to get out of Germany before it was too late."

"Thank God you did."

Just then the telephone rang. Nicholas went to answer it, leaving Mathilde and Alix to stare awkwardly at one another. As beautiful as Mathilde was, it was easy for Alix to see how Nicholas had fallen for her. She wished that she'd been as beautiful when she'd been young.

Soon Nicholas returned. "That was Andrei," he told Mathilde. "He's coming over with some dry clothes for you. He's going to change your tire when he gets here as well."

By now it had stopped raining. Mathilde's husband soon came and collected her, and Nicholas and Alix were alone together for the first time in over three years.

Nicholas lay in the bed and reached for Alix, and she lay down beside him. He took her into his arms, and she lay cuddled close to him and listened to his heartbeat. They lay like that for a long time.

Scene Break

"Great news," Nicholas told Olga over the telephone. "Your mother has returned to us at last."

"Is she there with you right now?" asked Olga.

"Indeed she is," her father told her.

"Oh! I must tell the others right away!" Olga exclaimed. She called all four of her siblings, and they and their spouses and children all gathered at Nicholas' house as soon as they could all get together. Alix joyfully hugged each of her children and grandchildren. She beamed when she saw Rachel's swollen belly.

"I can't believe my little boy is going to be a father himself now," she said.

"I'm not so little anymore, Mama," Alexei chuckled.

"You'll always be little Alexei to me," Alix told him. "And I'm Alexandra once again, instead of Alix. I'm also returning to the Russian Orthodox faith."

"I'm so happy," said Nicholas, hugging her.

Scene Break

Rachel's labor began just a couple of weeks later. Alexei drove her to the hospital, where he paced the waiting room floor for hours without hearing any news. He was beginning to worry that something might have gone wrong when the physician finally appeared, all smiles.

"Congratulations, Monsieur Romanov," he said. "You have a daughter."

"Is Rachel all right?" asked Alexei.

"She's fine," the physician assured him. "You may go in and see her whenever you like."

His heart pounding in anticipation, Alexei walked into the room to see his wife and child. Rachel was sitting up in bed, looking tired but happy. In her arms she held a tiny bundle wrapped in a blanket. Awed, Alexei drew nearer and gazed into his new daughter's tiny face. Rachel smiled.

"She's beautiful," said Alexei. "You did very well. I love you, Rachel."

"I hope you're not disappointed that you didn't get a son," said Rachel.

"Not at all!" Alexei quickly assured her. "We do need to come up with a name for her, though. I've always thought that Alena was a lovely name."

"I've never heard it before, but you're right, it is lovely," Rachel replied. "Let's call her that."

A couple of years later, Alena's brother was born. He was named Michael, for Alexei's uncle.


	24. Epilogue: At The Beginning With You

November 9, 1989  
Berlin, Germany

"Today is a monumental day in the history of our great country," Richard von Weizsacker, Germany's president, announced. "Today the wall that has separated one part of the city of Berlin from the other for over a quarter of a century will be taken down, and for the first time in that many years, all German citizens will be able to freely go wherever they wish within this city."

Fifty-year-old Michael Romanov, the son of Alexei and Rachel, listened with rapt attention to the president's words.

"Here to remove the first brick is a special guest," von Weizsacker continued. "Michael Romanov is the man who should be the Tsar of Russia today. Coincidentally, he happens to now be the same age that his grandfather, Tsar Nicholas II, was at the time his entire family, except for his youngest daughter Anastasia, were slaughtered in the basement of the Ipatiev House. A miracle brought the family back to life ten years later, but by then, the Communists were firmly entrenched in power over the Tsar's former kingdom."

"Helpless to do anything about the situation in their beloved country, the Romanovs lived out the rest of their lives as private citizens in Paris, France. Yet today marks the beginning of a new era, one for which Michael and his sister Alena and their cousins have waited their entire lives. And now, without further ado, Michael Romanov of Paris, France."

The crowd erupted in applause as von Weizsacker handed the microphone to Michael, who waited for the applause to subside, then began speaking.

"Greetings, citizens of Germany and all other countries represented here. It truly gladdens my heart to see my grandmother's homeland once again united and free. Ever since the end of the second world war, its eastern part has been enslaved under the yoke of the same government which destroyed my father's family and way of life. Over the years, some have died in the struggle to escape to freedom in the west, and my heart goes out to them and their families. Many others succeeded, for which fact I'm very happy. How I wish that my grandmother were still alive to take part in this celebration! I take comfort in the thought that she's looking down from above in approval."

"My greatest hope now is that freedom in the Eastern Bloc will continue to increase, and my dearest dream is that one day my grandfather's flag will once again fly over his beloved country."

The crowd once again erupted in applause, and Michael ran his hand through his salt-and-pepper hair and glanced over at his wife and children, who stood near the front of the crowd, beaming.

In Paris, an elderly lady watched the ceremony and Michael's speech on television. Too weak and frail now to travel, she had to be content with the next best thing.

As she watched Michael remove the first brick from the Berlin Wall, her heart nearly burst with joy. Of all her many nieces and nephews, Michael was the one to whom she'd always felt closest, and the one she'd always been the most proud of.

She thought of her parents and siblings in heaven above and how much she missed them. And Dimitri, of course. Her precious Dimitri.

He'd been beside her for almost sixty years, sharing life's joys and sorrows, until pneumonia had taken him away several years previously. How well she remembered sitting beside his hospital bed, holding his hand, comforting him as he'd so often comforted her over the years.

"It's all right, Mitya. You're free to go. I release you. The children and I are going to be fine. I'll always love you, darling, and we'll be together on the other side soon."

"Nastya." He grinned his familiar mischievous grin. "Remember the first time you met me?"

"Of course! How could I ever forget that?"

She'd thought he looked awfully young to be a kitchen boy, barely older than she herself was, his dark hair slicked down so that it wouldn't fly away, his brown eyes dancing with glee.

He'd taken something out of his pocket to show her, and she'd gasped when she saw what it was. A tiny black garden snake.

"Come on," he'd whispered conspiratorially. "I'm gonna hide it in the pantry when the cook isn't looking." Right away, Anastasia had known that she'd found a kindred spirit.

Now as she watched his life ebb away, she'd wondered what in the world she'd do without him.

"Hold onto the memories, Nastya," he'd whispered. "You'll always have those. Nobody can take them away from you."

"Oh, I will, Mitya, I will!" she'd cried.

"I love you, Anastasia." He'd closed his eyes and was gone.

Jolted back to the present, Anastasia sat riveted to the television set. Indeed there were many changes taking place in the world, almost all of them good ones. Although she missed her family, she was glad that she'd lived to see this day, and like Michael, she hoped to live to see even more positive changes.

She called to her granddaughter. "Natalie, will you please bring me my music box?"

"Of course, Grandmama."

Seconds later, Anastasia was holding the music box in her hands. Although it was very old, it still worked. Anastasia turned the key and watched the dancing figures twirl around and around and listened to the tinkling tune. "Dancing bears, painted wings, things I almost remember..."

"That song makes you think of Grandpapa, doesn't it?" asked Natalie.

"It sure does, sweetheart."

"We'll see him again someday, Grandmama."

"Someday soon, in my case."

"Don't talk like that, Grandmama."

"But it's true." Anastasia patted Natalie's hand. "Don't be sad, sweetheart. It's as it should be. I've lived a full life. When my time comes, I'll be ready."

As the music gradually slowed and then stopped, Natalie looked at her grandmother and saw that Anastasia was asleep. She switched the television off but left the music box where it was.


End file.
